{"text":[[{"start":0,"text":"The US Supreme Court has rejected the Trump administration’s eleventh-hour request to intervene in its lawsuit seeking to temporarily block California from counting disputed mail-in ballots."}],[{"start":19.6,"text":"In a terse order with no explanation, the justices declined the administration’s request to set aside about 20,000 ballots that the federal government has identified as likely assigned to non-citizens — a finding state officials disagree with."}],[{"start":34.08,"text":"It is the latest blow to President Donald Trump’s attempts to use the power of the federal government to influence elections, which are managed by states."}],[{"start":42.72,"text":"Tuesday’s midterm elections could shake up the balance of power in Congress. In recent weeks, the White House has accelerated its efforts to target non-citizen voters, though they are rare."}],[{"start":53.6,"text":"The Trump administration filed the lawsuit last month after claiming state officials failed to meet a 48-hour deadline to review a list of 20,000 people on the state’s voter rolls whom federal officials said were probably non-citizens."}],[{"start":67.68,"text":"“Once California commingles the challenged ballots with lawful ones, there is no way to get the challenged ballots back,” US solicitor-general D John Sauer told the court earlier on Monday."}],[{"start":79.52,"text":"California governor Gavin Newsom on Friday said that Trump’s efforts were “desperate and dangerous attempts to meddle in the California election process just days before election day”, after a federal appeals court refused for the second time to set aside the ballots. The state did not respond to the president’s emergency appeal."}],[{"start":98.541,"text":"Acting US deputy attorney-general Trent McCotter wrote on social media on Monday before the ruling that California had “refused” to work with the federal government to “protect against non-citizen voting”."}],[{"start":109.52,"text":"Lower courts have sided with California, refusing to heed the administration’s calls to intervene. A federal judge last week said granting the request to segregate the ballots would “wreak havoc and disrupt the election”."}],[{"start":121.96,"text":"Voting in the Democratic stronghold has been under way since early October and hundreds of thousands of ballots have been processed."}],[{"start":125.52,"text":"Separately, a federal judge on Sunday threw out the Department of Justice’s lawsuit seeking to block the certification of Alaska’s Senate contest if Republican incumbent Daniel S Sullivan narrowly loses to Democrat Mary Peltola, whose campaign reportedly recruited a third candidate — Daniel J Sullivan — to boost her chances of winning. The Trump administration has already appealed against that decision."}],[{"start":148.64,"text":"Earlier, Trump promised a $1mn payout for people whose tips about voter fraud in past elections or the upcoming midterm races lead to an arrest and conviction. The DoJ has also subpoenaed election officials and threatened prosecutions."}],[{"start":170.18,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1793675913_9404.mp3"}